10 Elements. Smart Sales Call Plan

CALL

PLAN

Call Plan

DONAL DALY

CEO and Founder of The TAS Group and Author of the Best-Seller

Account Planning in Salesforce

Smart Sales

Make every sales call matter.

10 Elements

of a

WENDY REED

EVP Solutions, The TAS Group

with

Contents

Introduction 3

THE 10 ELEMENTS OF A SMART SALES CALL PLAN 1 Logistics 9

2 Setting Expectations 12

3 Sales Call Strategy 15

4 People and Problems 20

5 Objectives and Outcomes 24

6 High Yield Questions 29

7 Collaboration 33 8 Smart 36 9 Mobile 40 10 Cloud 43 Conclusion 47 Resources 51

Introduction

CALL

PLAN

DESIRED OUTCOMES?

what are the

In the absence of a Call Plan many sales interactions stumble or stagger, where they should stroll or stride In fact, 64% of all sales calls are ineffective.

YOU FAIL?

why might

So here’s the thing about sales calls There are really only two things that a salesperson controls:

1 Who they call on, and

2 What they say when they get there

Ideally a seller is spending as much time preparing for and executing on the ‘what’ as he is deciding on the ‘who’ After all, no matter how well you have refined your target market, figured out the ideal buyer persona, and sharpened your competitive positioning, nothing happens until you engage with the customer

But the research shows that very few of these engagements are planned It is all too rare that a sales person has a detailed plan of what he wants to achieve on the call

This is where the magic is supposed to happen It is the salesperson’s opportunity to progress the sale, to deepen relationships and to uncover and address vulnerabilities in the deal It is his opportunity to show that he is a credible individual who can bring his own insight to the conversation, and create – not just communicate – value, all the time advancing the deal

Unfortunately, most of the time, there is no value created by the salesperson

Two-thirds of the time business executives are turned off by the lack of preparation by the sales person. They say that they don’t find a lot of value in sales conversations. We should not find it surprising that business executives who are being pursued by sales people are hard to access, using their executive assistants to screen callers, interrupt meetings, or delegating the entire interaction to someone on their team

25% OF SENIOR

BUSINESS EXECUTIVES

only

The harsh truth is that from the buyer’s perspective most sellers (87%) are not adequately prepared for sales calls The consequences go further than you might think. If you waste executives’ time – the most precious currency they have – your stock has fallen. The likelihood of progressing the sale has been damaged Your value is questioned

NOT ADEQUATELY

PREPARED

most sellers are

26%

61%

13%

Other research suggests that the purchase experience is

the most significant arbiter of customer loyalty Now your

customer loyalty is damaged even before you start You have a steep hill to climb if you ever want to use an executive to refer you to their colleagues You have just wasted their time

Of course the more common scenario is where there are multiple people from the customer’s side involved in the meeting, along with multiple people on your team – and that is when the risk of the call going off the rails multiplies exponentially If one person on your team underperforms in a meeting, then that is a reflection on the entire team.

On the other hand, you could have a good, well-planned call that delivers on everything you wished for Having a well thought out plan will help you and your team focus on making each event count, moving the decision in your favor. Without a plan there is an increased likelihood that some of the people on your team will inadvertently say and do things that create awkward situations that may create a sense of trepidation with the buyer Having a game plan that outlines the outcomes and everyone’s role on a sales call yields a stronger result

INEFFECTIVE SALES CALL?

treasured relationships to an

Logistics

This is the simple stuff that is important to get right. Too

many sales calls go wrong before they even start If you

ever arrived late for a meeting, discovered too late that you need security access to get in the building, or arrived at the customer’s location assuming erroneously that your colleague had brought the proposal – you know what I mean. You’re instantly at a disadvantage From the customer’s perspective you have shown a disregard for her time Immediately you have probably been relegated to the 75% of sales calls that don’t succeed in moving to the next step And that’s before you even got started. So let’s think about the simple things.

It is always better to err on the side of being over-dressed rather than turning up casually attired and finding the customer in formal business wear

Does everyone on your team who is joining you on the call know the meeting

location, date and time? Do they know whom they should contact if they are running late or have

a logistics issue? Does

dress code matter?

Make sure you have the audio-visual needs figured out and planned in advance There is nothing worse than arriving to a meeting planning to do a presentation only to find that the allocated meeting room is not equipped with a projector Someone on the team should coordinate with the host of the meeting to make sure that you have the requisite technology, AV equipment, network access, whiteboards or flipcharts. You don’t want to waste valuable meeting time on activities that don’t help to achieve the purpose of the call

As you develop your call plan, make sure that it is clear who has responsibility for sorting out all of the logistics, and bringing whatever materials, product samples, or equipment you might require Put these items on a list and if you are not doing it yourself then assign it to someone you can trust. Make sure that you plan early enough so that the pre-call activities can be completed without adding any stress for yourself or your customer

Setting

Expectations

William Shakespeare said “Expectations are the root of all heartache” and of course that is really true when it comes to a customer meeting – both for you and for the customer After every meeting, you always want each person in the meeting to feel that the meeting was good use of their time, that they got more from the meeting than they expected Satisfaction or quality is always a function of expectation and performance.

If you don’t perform to the customer’s expectations then they will be disappointed, and that’s not good You, your colleagues, and the customer, should all be clear as to the customer’s expectation of the call In the buyer’s mind, a crisp,

concise and clear meeting indicates an organized approach,

which creates a feeling of security in the buyer’s mind

expectation

disappointment

Why did the customer agree to the meeting? What is your meeting host expecting from you and your team? What would she like to accomplish as a result of the meeting? You want to make sure that expectations are aligned. What you don’t want is the customer expecting to see a final presentation, if you are expecting to have further discussion about her business requirements Knowing their expectations allows your team to appear focused on the buyer instead of the seller and to earn the right to advance

The simplest way to achieve this of course is to agree the agenda in advance, being clear on the best possible outcome for both yourself and the customer. What really works for me is if you can collaborate with someone in the customer’s organization on the agenda Then I can distribute that agreed agenda so that everyone is on the same page

We suggest that the agenda that you give the customer addresses the outcomes for the meeting from the customer’s perspective This is courteous, but also gives the customer the opportunity to:

Make sure that when you are crafting the agenda that you have allocated sufficient time to get to your core meeting objectives Don’t get into a situation where you have run down the clock only to find that you have missed the opportunity to uncover information you need, ask the customer to take a specific action to progress, or teach the customer something that you want them to learn

Alert the seller if the agenda does not meet their objectives

Provide input into the agenda if they want to discuss additional topics

Confirm the meeting is still taking place Suggest other attendees who might make the meeting more productive once they have seen the agenda

1

2

3

4

Sales Call

Strategy

Consistent execution means that you consistently remind yourself and your team of your strategy to win By consistently linking the strategy to the actions, all the sellers in the meeting will know which activities will support the strategy. If, for example, you have selected a Flanking strategy to compete,

you know you need to change the rules of engagement

Early in the buying process, your call plan might focus on identifying the current rules as well as what messages you can send to change the rules

Every sales call presents you with an opportunity to learn more about the customer’s journey, so that you can determine how you can help Your job is to guide them along a path

of mutual value so that as you deliver value to the customer

you arrive together at your preferred destination They

choose to buy from you. The best way to sell effectively in a

Flanking situation (for example) is to demonstrate value to your customer in an area they had not considered With your team, you need to be clear as to the unique value that you can bring, and how you propose to communicate that during the meeting

What particular information do you want to convey?

Are there areas that you specifically do not

In order to get the most from your team on a sales call, you need to be crystal clear on the information you would like to communicate on the call. Unless the key messages are discussed and agreed before the call, including who should say what, when and to whom, your meeting is unlikely to be optimally successful. After the meeting you may find yourself saying “I thought you were going to bring up how we helped ABC Company solve the exact same problem,” only to hear “No, I was sure that you had that covered.” In some cases you will also want to be prepared for a situation where an opportunity arises to present or acquire information, you need to be clear as to who has responsibility to grab that opportunity

Equally important of course is to document what should

NOT be talked about in the meeting For instance, when the

customer wants to discuss the price of your solution, you may not be ready to have that conversation If that is the case, but you have not informed your team of your desired approach, then you may well have trouble on your hands This happens with other topics as well

It is always better to have figured out in advance how to deal with these kinds of issues in case the customer brings them up I have never been in trouble for ‘too much’ preparation or over-communicating the ‘should not’ topics with my team

strat • e • gy

ALWAYS HAS OPTIONS

your customer

COMPETITIVE CONSIDERATIONS

There is almost always some competitive aspect to consider when on a sales call Your customer always has options They could buy from a competitor, they could decide to do nothing, or they could buy from you As part of the sales call plan you should consider how you want the customer to think about the competitive considerations You can do that by getting your customer to understand the value of a specific capability that you know is a weak area for your competitor.

For example, we believe that having built Dealmaker on the Salesforce platform is a tremendous advantage to our customers, but they don’t always think about that. So, we might ask the customer how important it is for them to have a secure, robust, high-performing application, and highlight the fact that as Dealmaker is built on Salesforce that they don’t have to worry about the considerable security issues or performance risks of having

a solution in a third party cloud If reliability and security is truly important to our customers then it makes it very difficult for many of our competitors to compete

We also know that many companies fail to gain the return from their sales effectiveness investment because it is difficult for the sales people to use the methodologies that they have been taught. Dealmaker solves that problem through the combination of deep sales methodology and smart software delivered in the cloud and on mobile devices Sales people can learn and apply concepts directly from their smartphones We learned that this is really important to our customers when we asked a very simple question: “What happens when the sales trainer leaves?” This question, when presented to seasoned sales executives, is usually greeted with a slumping of the shoulders, a slow but considerable intake of breath, accompanied by an honest “Yep, that’s really a hard problem to solve” response

Because we solve that problem (and it is a real problem for our customers) more effectively than anyone else, we consistently ask that question of prospects. It highlights an important consideration for them and sets the bar high for our competitors

People

and Problems

You’d be forgiven for thinking that being a customer is easier than being a sales person. All the customer has to do is pick a supplier, right? But when the customer makes that buying decision, we now know that the risk shifts from the supplier to the customer, and the impact on the customer of a poor buying decision is usually greater than the impact on the salesperson of a lost sale. I have said this before, but I think it is important enough to say again:

The impact on the customer of a poor buying

decision is usually greater than the impact on the

salesperson of a lost sale.

For a customer to be comfortable, she must be really sure that the supplier has a deep comprehension of her (sometimes unstated) needs Buyers don’t always understand their own needs. When that understanding is filtered through the lens of another, vision is often blurred, and the picture that emerges is uncertain

You must always bring that perspective with you to the sales call Your sales call must be focused on the customer’s business issues

What internal or external pressures are causing her to act?

What initiatives is she considering to address those issues? What are her goals?

As I have worked with talented sales professionals around the world, failing to access Key Players, or to influence them effectively, is always one of the most frequent reasons cited for failure in a sales campaign How many times have you, or one of your sales team, spent weeks on a sales campaign only to learn that one of the Key Players that you did not connect with had sent the sale in another direction?

Well, you’re not alone According to the Dealmaker Index, just over half of sales reps are effective at accessing Key Players, and of course those who are successful are more successful at achieving quota

Most deals are not lost because you don’t have the best solution or the best price or the best terms and conditions

DID NOT

UNDERSTAND

deals are usually

lost because you

Your sales call is an opportunity to understand clearly what your customer wants to achieve When you head into that meeting, you want to consider what you already know about each person on the other side of the table What’s their opinion of you? Are they a supporter, or have they a preference for one of your competitors? What is their role in the decision making process?

Each person in a buying role merits a separate selling

approach, and you should be clear about who on your team is responsible for executing on the tactics supporting that approach

When you get to setting objectives, determining information that you want to convey, crafting your high yield questions, or articulating your competitive positioning, you will always need to do this in the context of the people and the problems

What is their role in the decision making process? Are they a supporter, or do they prefer a competitor? What’s their opinion of you?

Objectives

and Outcomes

Setting objectives for the call is the most important thing to do. Once you know who will attend the meeting and the business issues they care about, you can begin to consider your objectives for the call

It is useful to ask yourself the question ‘What evidence am I looking for to know that I have advanced the sale?’ Coming out of a call feeling that it went well is of little value if you can’t point to specific actions the customer has taken or has agreed to take as a consequence of your interactions in the meeting.

To create objectives, you should brainstorm with your team to figure out the optimal outcome from the call. This should be a stretch goal – not too easy What can I achieve if I really push and everything goes well? Then spend the time to work out what you might need to do to achieve that outcome Consider the creation of your objectives as a mini deal review, and an opportunity to assess your current position and figure out your go-forward plan

Objectives need to be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) Objectives shouldn’t be vague or ambiguous

ACHIEVE

what do you want to

In setting outcomes, sales teams often fail to set aggressive

goals Instead, they settle for information that anyone

could get:

• Gather information about the buyer’s business • Confirm the buyer’s goals

• Confirm the buyer’s timeframe

Other examples of poor objectives might be: (The comments in parentheses explain why)

• Advance the relationship (how do you know?) • Make progress in the sale (from where to where?) • Demo the software (to what end?)

• Help them understand our value (why?)

For each objective you should be clear as to why it is worth pursuing and what action/statement you want from the customer that will prove you have been successful in achieving it

Better objectives might look like this:

1 Have Pat Morello, the business sponsor, verbally confirm that we understand their requirements

2 Work through the cost of their production inefficiencies today to get Helen Hastings, from the finance

committee, to describe the daily cost of inaction 3 Mitch Boyle to confirm the business pressure that

underlines the fact that security and performance are key decision criteria.

4 Get agreement from Pat Morello to a Phase 1

deployment to validate that our solution is a good fit for their requirements

5 Gain greater internal alignment by moving Mitch from Neutral to Supporter. He confirms that he will sponsor us to begin supplier setup

You won’t always achieve your optimal objectives, so there is always value in considering a minimal objective A minimal objective should be the least thing you need to happen on a call to advance the opportunity and make the event worth the time and effort you are investing. In the list above, you might consider objectives 1, 2 and 3 as

minimal objectives and 4 and 5 as optimal objectives

PREVENT ME

FROM ACHIEVING

what could

OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS

“If I had only thought about that before!” is one of the most frustrating personal reprimands – so it is always better to try to avoid it As you develop your objectives for your meeting you should also consider why you might fail to achieve them Thinking through the various scenarios will focus your mind and help you create better action plans to succeed

For each of your planned objectives, ask yourself “What might prevent me from achieving this objective, or not getting the outcomes I need?” Then build your plan to overcome these barriers

High Yield

Questions

High yield questions are those that uncover the greatest amount of information using the fewest questions Example: You want to learn more about the customer’s perspective on their competitiveness You might want to know the answers to the following:

1 Who are your largest competitors?

2 How do their solutions stack up to yours?

3 How does their market share compare to yours? 4 Do they have a strong sales organization?

5 What are they doing that is effective? 6 How are you beating them?

Instead of asking a stream of six questions, let the customer lead you by asking a high yield question like “What are the things that are uppermost in your mind relative to your

competitive environment?“ This question gives the seller the

opportunity to gain insight into the customer’s perceptions and it also provides the buyer with the opportunity to answer the six questions in one go The customer is leading the

conversation (not you) and with this approach you have much greater opportunity to learn surprising facts that you might not have considered

INFORMATION

uncover the

greatest amount of

using the

When you prepare and ask high yield questions you get better answers Well-structured questions, founded in meaningful relevant insight, will elevate your customer’s perception of you and increase your credibility, while at the same time eliciting more valuable information Here’s how you might think about structuring these questions.

1 What specific information do you need in order to move

forward effectively? Specifically you will want to consider the elements of the answer you are seeking so that your question can be structured to dissuade vague or ambiguous answers Obviously you will not know the answer itself, but you can identify the type of information you’re seeking. It may be particular metrics, the names or titles of people involved, the impact of a particular problem, the individual’s perception of the most important challenges they face, etc

2 Next you need to determine who can provide that

information If that person is not in the meeting you might

want to ask someone who will be there to get the information beforehand so that you can ask the question in the meeting so that everyone hears the answer

PERCEPTION OF YOU

You only have so much time on the sales call, and for the most part you want the customer to be doing most of the talking, so the question you ask needs to be planned and deliberately designed to give the optimum yield

How frequently does your sales team experience stalled deals after the first meeting they have with a new customer? According to Forrester Research, only

36% of sales people are adequately prepared for sales calls, and as a consequence, only 25% of sales calls result in a follow up meeting.

3 Then you structure the question itself Start with an insight or unarguable fact that sets the context for the question, and follow that with your question For example, I might say:

Collaboration

With sales organizations becoming increasingly fragmented, often split between inside and field reps, dispersed between home offices, corporate locations and on the road, it can be difficult for sales teams to effectively work together or

interact efficiently But enterprise selling is a team sport

Everyone needs to know what is going on all of the time to be most effective.

When preparing for a sales call the difference between success and failure can sometimes be your ability to get everyone on the same page Real-time communication is critical Without it you might miss the opportunity to advance the deal, run into problems that, with better alignment, you might have avoided, or look foolish in front of your customer. But it doesn’t have to be that way

REDUCES

SALES LATENCY

timely

collaboration

and

DRIVES PRODUCTIVITY

If you are using a cloud-based CRM, such as Salesforce, mobile-enabled with Salesforce1, then there really are no excuses anymore Having a collaborative application integrated with SFDC all information is available to everyone

at the same time so that there is no loss of productivity

With tools such as Salesforce, Dealmaker and smartphones, you can drive productivity across a sales organization and reduce delays in all areas by creating an informed and connected sales team A collaborative culture supported by the requisite smart technology offers the ability to optimize your sales processes and communications, integrate multiple information channels and data sources with the people on your team so that everyone is optimally prepared for the call

As we navigate the confluence of smart,

mobile and cloud, we

predict that the uptake of such collaborative smart sales systems will surge as applications and tools are introduced that make it easy for the sellers to

plan and execute their sales call from any desktop or mobile device, inside or outside the office. The speed, flexibility and the cost and time effectiveness of such collaboration sessions will make them standard and if you are not leveraging

these advancements you will be at a disadvantage to your

Smart

As a sales person, when you are going on a sales call, you know that knowledge is valuable. But as you seek to outpace your competitors, anticipate customer needs, and make quick informed decisions – sometimes knowledge isn’t enough; it is what you do with it that matters The most progressive sales organizations are applying smart selling systems to augment the seller’s experience and knowledge when making a call.

Here’s how we think about smart

Smart = Data + Knowledge + Context + Applied Reasoning

When you go to visit a customer, there is data that you have about the opportunity or the account To have a successful sale call you should apply the knowledge that you have

learned over the years as you prepare for the call and to guide your execution while you are there. But as you know, you

must apply the knowledge in context. Different scenarios will

benefit from different knowledge, and whether you know it or not, you use applied reasoning to use the data, knowledge and context, to make judgments about what to do next. You can have a much greater chance of preparing well and execute effectively on the sales call if you leverage technology to prepare your sales call plan, inform your actions and help you make better judgments.

it’s what you do with the

that matters

Our Smart Journey

We have been pioneering the notion of ‘smart selling’ since 2005 Traditional sales training companies have disagreed with the notion saying “you can’t automate selling” - which of course is true, in an absolute sense - and ignored or cast aside the potential value that technology can bring to automate some of the repetitive tasks or analytical tasks that today’s sales professional must deal with.

Saying you can’t automate sales is like saying you can’t automate financial trading, construction design, or medical diagnosis But yet investment analysts, engineers, and doctors rely on smart systems everyday to guide best practice, shape decisions and predict outcomes – employing the rigor of technology to the repetitive and analytical tasks, to free themselves to apply the art of their craft, gleaned from experience

If it usually takes you 120 days to close a $100,000 deal, or 14 days to get a contract signed, then it might be helpful if the software – knowing where you are in sales cycle – could indicate when you might expect to book the deal, based on the usual pattern of behavior. At least you know and you can plan your sales call accordingly

Effective account planning can deliver remarkable revenue growth in your large enterprise accounts By their very nature, large accounts are complex entities, so when meeting with your customer it can be hard to know where to focus. You need to plan this call, just like any other sales call. A smart call plan can guide your conversation in the direction of mutual value

If one of the buyers in the meeting values a particular feature that your competitor offers, then you know that your competitive strategy should account for that. When you consider all of the opportunities that you work at any given time, it would not be unusual to sometimes overlook this vulnerability. If you don’t address that risk when you have the customer’s attention during your sales call you are missing out A smart software system is less likely to make that mistake and will highlight for you the risk to your deal so that you could respond appropriately

Of course you can’t automate the execution of a sales call any more than you would trust a computer to fully diagnose your ailment, decide the strategy for your investment portfolio or choose the materials for a new bridge spanning San Francisco Bay; but it seems to me that you would be foolish not to automate what you can in preparing your sales call plan, leveraging the data, knowledge, and context to make way for you to apply your skills and expertise when you are in front of the customer

A smart software system will perform more consistently, more quickly and with less effort, than any of us who from time to time suffer from imperfection, tiredness, forgetfulness, subjectivity, illness, a busy schedule, over-confidence or frustration.

Progressive sales professionals today are using smart software to prepare for calls, to consistently apply rules and quantitative analysis so that they can be reasoned and flexible, to discover, imagine and learn, and after all that, to apply judgment

Mobile

Think about this. If there are two people in the room—you and your competitor—and you are not leveraging mobile technology, then who is the ‘one in two’?

The facts are pretty amazing The mobile industry has scaled dramatically over the last decade At the end of 2013, there were 3 4 billion unique subscribers in the world That’s a lot of people —about one in two people in the world If it’s going to be you or them, then it may as well be you

Mobile is not an option anymore Sales people live on their phones Sales calls typically happen ‘on the road’ and the phone is the device that we all choose to use You are missing a great opportunity if you can’t use your sales call plans on the phone As you go from call to call, you need to switch context quickly. You need to re-orient yourself from one call to the other so that you are consistently effective; reminding yourself who will be at the meeting, what they care about, the key messages to focus on, information you need to gather, etc You are

working many deals, working with many customers and internal resources The mobile call plan puts you at ease

SURVEY OF AMERICAN ADULTS have a cell phone

90%

58%

32%

42%

The smartphone has become an extension of the sales person’s armory. It is usually the first thing they check in the when the plane lands. It is the last thing they check before they walk into a meeting and the first thing they check when they walk out. When they have a bit more time they will flip open their iPad – but when they are on the move, going to that sales call, it is all about their smartphone

Time is precious, and the sales person’s time is incredibly precious, both to them and to the sales organization looking to maximize the performance of their key quota-bearers. Since so much of a sales person’s time is spent moving between A and B and back again, they should be equipped with the mobility to connect to their sales call plan allowing them to be responsive, productive, collaborative and

consistent at any time, wherever they are Given that many sales call are conducted on the road it makes total sense that the sales person can access her call plan directly from her phone

the salesperson’s

EXTENSION OF

ARMORY

Cloud

As twin engines of growth, the inexorable rise of mobile device ownership as referenced in the previous section, and the advancement of cloud computing are the most significant changes in the business landscape that any of us has witnessed in our lifetimes The total size of the Cloud Computing Industry in 2014 is estimated to be $150 Billion as compared to $46 Billion in 2008 and the overall Cloud Computing growth rate is 5 times more than the IT growth rate globally This shift is empowering for sales people on the road. For business strategists, marketers, sellers and buyers alike, mobile and cloud are becoming the twin axes around which business revolves – and your sales call plan needs to benefit from the tremendous advantages they can bring. When your sales call plan is hosted in the cloud your team can collaborate more easily and integrate more seamlessly with other cloud based applications

Apps on your mobile device are at the end of the spokes attached to the hub in the cloud For sellers on the road preparing for a sales call, collaborative access to the information at the hub is invaluable In our business we use Salesforce com as our CRM, Concur to manage travel expenses and Box for enterprise document storage, all in the cloud on our phones, like The TAS Group, each of these companies (Salesforce, Box and Concur) uses Dealmaker to enhance sales effectiveness, in the cloud and on their phones.

In 2013, nearly 40% of CRM systems sold globally were cloud-based Let’s say you use Salesforce as your CRM, and Dealmaker Smart Call Planner (or another cloud based application) as your call planning system If that is the case, you are already asking your sales team to enter their opportunity information into Salesforce and your call plan can be informed by information from your opportunity management system If that

is where your opportunity detail is held, and where you have used Dealmaker to create a political map for the opportunity, or built out an Insight Map for your customer, then you must leverage that information in your sales call plan That’s how you make your call plan smart. It must integrate tightly with the CRM system and your sales performance automation system so that if information changes about the people or their business strategy, then the call plan should automatically ‘know’.

If you are on Salesforce, then your call planning solution will benefit hugely if it is ‘native’ on the Salesforce Platform. Unlike other solutions that are just linked to Salesforce, or just lightly integrated, this means that your data resides in the Salesforce Cloud, with the same security as Saleforce, the same performance as Salesforce and will work the same way as your other Salesforce apps You do not have to worry about the security of a third party Cloud, the data transfer issues that occur with non-native solutions, or the reliability of a third party hosting infrastructure In addition to being smarter because it is integrated to everything else that you know about the opportunity and the customer, the app itself will be more familiar to use, more secure, more responsive and more available, than if is not built natively on the Salesforce Platform

Conclusion

CALL

PLAN

BECAUSE IT’S WORTH IT

So let’s say you’ve taken to heart all the recommendations in this book. Is it all worth it?

If you invest the time making sure the logistics are perfect, agree expectations with the customer, collaborate with your team on the call strategy, you plan the questions to ask and the objectives of the call, how do you know it is worth the effort?

We are not going to trot out the ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’ cliché because we know you know that is true. But we also know that when you have more effective sales calls you win more often The trick is in knowing what you can influence and what to measure.

There are only four factors that impact your sales velocity:

Number of sales opportunities you work Average deal value Length of sales cycle Win rate

Simply put; you want to increase #, $ and %, and reduce L.

For example, if you increase #, $ and %, by 10% and reduce L by 10%, then you increase your sales velocity by 47% Go on, do the math – it works out.

Unfortunately _{most people focus most of their time on}

getting more opportunities _{and not on trying to maximize}

the return from the opportunities they have Adding to the pipeline is important, of course – but only if you win a good proportion of the deals Smarter sales call plans can help

Let’s consider what might happen if you apply the 10

Elements of a Smart Sales Call Plan _{to your current}

opportunities _{What happens if you don’t add new}

opportunities, but execute effectively on the sales calls for your current opportunities?

Number of sales opportunities you work Average deal value Length of sales cycle Win rate

+10%

+10%

+10%

-10%

+47%

If we apply the sales velocity equation and assume that the number of opportunities stays static, but that you do manage to increase the average deal size and win rate by 10%, and reduce the length of the sales cycle by 10%, your sales velocity would improve by 34% That’s one third more revenue from the same number of opportunities. Seems like it is worth it.

So, this quarter you might want to take up this challenge. Apply the 10 Elements of a Smart Sales Call Plan for every sales call you have You might be surprised at the results

Sales Velocity Levers

Number of Deals No change

Sales Cycle Win Rate Average Deal Size

Which Elements to Apply

Logistics, Expectations, Collaboration, Mobile & Cloud, Integrated

Smart, Strategy, Objectives and Outcomes People and Problems, High Yield Questions

Resources

Here are some resources for further information and more planning tools. Click on the buttons below.

Account Planning

in Salesforce Great Sales Playbook12 Elements of a

PROVIDE VISIBILITY for your sales managers and WIN MORE DEALS!

D O N A L D A L Y

FOUNDER and CEO of THE TAS GROUP

AUTHOR OF THE BEST-SELLER ACCOUNT PLANNING IN SALESFORCE

Learn the keys to creating and implementing a sales playbook that helps your team win more deals and provides visibility for sales managers. The implementation of a sales playbook can be one of the most impactful initiatives for any sales organization. There are two reasons for this tremendous ROI. First, by following some simple guidelines, it can be a remarkably easy initiative to implement. And second, research shows that this results in 33% additional revenue. Despite the proven benefits, 2 out of 5 companies don’t have a defined sales process. And in many organizations that have defined sales processes, sales reps don’t follow them. This results in lost deals and poor forecasting.

A sales playbook can be the catalyst to remarkable improvement in sales velocity. Get started on improving or creating your sales playbook today!

Donal Daly continues to revolutionize the sales effectiveness industry by introducing smart sales performance apps. A serial entrepreneur, he is currently the CEO of The TAS Group – the world leader in sales performance automation. Donal is an in-demand speaker and writer, and is the author of four books.

Unlock revenue from big customers to turn them into BIGGER customers

Donal Daly continues to revolutionize the sales effectiveness industry by introducing smart sales performance apps. A serial entrepreneur, he is currently the CEO of The TAS Group – the world leader in sales performance automation. Donal is an in-demand speaker and writer, and is the author of four books.

ACC OUNT PL ANNING in SALESF OR CE DON AL D AL

Y Founder and CEO of The TAS GroupDONAL DALY

Praise for ACCOUNT PLANNING in SALESFORCE

“Companies around the globe are transforming the way they connect with customers. Account Planning in Salesforce contains valuable advice on how to use account planning methodology in Salesforce to accelerate revenue growth. It is a great example of how our partners are leveraging the power of the Salesforce Platform to provide customers with the right tools to accelerate their success in the cloud.”

RON HUDDLESTON, Senior Vice President, ISV & Channel, salesforce.com “Unlike most books on this topic, Donal grounds his recommendations in the context of modern B2B sales, where customers—armed with massive amounts of information and advice—can afford to engage salespeople later and later in the purchase decision. In this world, an insight-based approach must serve as the backbone of a powerful account plan. And, as Donal demonstrates, there are no shortcuts to getting this right. This book is required reading for those of us who want to keep selling and avoid the trap of order-taking.” MATTHEW DIXON, Executive Director Sales & Service Practice, CEB

Co-author of The Challenger Sale

“Donal uncovers the vast advantages of account planning done right and shows how our own client intimacy approach has benefitted from getting closer to our customers.” PATRICIA ELIZONDO, Senior Vice President, Xerox Corporation “A must-read for all sales professionals working in a salesforce.com environment! Account planning is a core sales skill that requires a disciplined approach and ongoing care and maintenance. The book not only teaches the ‘how’, but the ‘why’ proper account planning will drive bigger and stronger sales opportunities.” MATTHEW L. COX, Senior Director, Sales Strategy and Operations, Hewlett-Packard

Rockstar sales reps know how to unlock revenue in big customers. This book teaches you their secrets – what they know and how they do it. In every large customer account there is hidden white space where you can sell your existing products to new divisions and sell more solutions to the same business units – for complete penetration across the account. Supercharge your account plans within Salesforce using three core principles to exploit that white space and maximize revenue in your key customer accounts.

“All too often Account Planning is a once-a-year effort that gathers dust on the shelf. Use Donal Daly’s ACCOUNT PLANNING in SALESFORCE to help transform this critical activity into a usable, customer-centric approach to growing loyal relationships all year long.”

BOB THOMPSON, CEO & Founder,

CustomerThink Corp.

Account Planning is a strategic imperative that goes beyond traditional selling tactics, and the benefits go beyond simple revenue numbers. When Account Planning is executed well, you understand the customer’s business, sit with them at their side of the table, and strengthen your ability to shape their thinking and their business strategies.

Battling the 57%

BATTLING

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DONAL DALY

CEO and Founder of The TAS Group Author of the Best-Seller Account Planning in Salesforce

About the Authors

Donal Daly is CEO and founder of The TAS Group, which is his fifth global business enterprise. Combining his expertise in enterprise software applications, artificial intelligence and sales

methodology, he continues to revolutionize the sales effectiveness industry. Donal was also CEO and founder at Software Development Tools, NewWorld Commerce, The Customer Respect Group, and Select Strategies — all of which were acquired by various parties. Donal is the author of four books including his recent Amazon Bestseller, Account Planning in Salesforce, and Select Selling Sales Fieldbook

Send your comments and feedback to: ddaly@thetasgroup com

Wendy Reed is EVP of Solutions at The TAS Group and brings her entrepreneurial drive and experience to the design, deployment and implementation of sales effectiveness solutions.

Wendy is the author of Selling for the Long Run, and has received recognition as Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, WIT (Women In Technology) Woman of the Year in Technology, Catalyst’s Magazines Top 50 Entrepreneurs, Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 Under 40 Georgia’s Brightest Stars, Clarkson University’s Entrepreneurial Success, and Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Company in America Send your comments and feedback to: